Contemplation
by wordsequalmight
Summary: In the late hours of the night (or the early hours of the morning), Danny Fenton — now a junior at Casper High — thinks about his cursed (blessed?) ghost powers after surviving what should have been a fatal lab accident exactly two years ago. Rated T for mild language, insinuation, and DARK themes.
1. Chapter 1

**I know I've been ignoring my other FFNs, but this one just wouldn't go away. I've searched everywhere for an explanation as to why Danny survived the portal accident when, for all intents and purposes, he should be dead. This is my way of answering that, merged with what I think Danny goes through sometimes when he's feeling particularly down about his half-life because there's no way he just rolls with getting dealt this hand and doesn't have some kind of morbidity about being half-alive and half-dead.**

 **I was also thinking about how Vlad acquired ghost powers, and - while writing my theory as to how Danny got his - I realized why / how Vlad got his powers. My theory also explains why Danny's powers just. keep. growing. and he's become one of the most powerful ghosts in existence just a year into frying in ectoplasm.**

 **For those of you waiting on my other stories... now that I have time to dedicated to FFN (because college seniors in their last semester [insert celebratory noise here]) actually have time to do things they want to do because they care less about various clubs to which they belong and only have four classes which frees up most of their day, they now have time to write creatively. So... yeah. Expect updates on those shortly.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, and it all belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. If I had owned "Danny Phantom," the show would have been very different... and most likely more suitable for teenagers rather than children.**

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Danny Fenton learned how to live — ironically enough — by dying.

Sometimes in the late hours of the night (early hours of the morning?), when Danny Fenton couldn't go to sleep because his body was ready to jump up and battle an invading ghost, he thought about why he wasn't just killed when the portal zapped to life with him inside.

This time was different. At 5:38 p.m. exactly two years ago to the day, Danny Phantom was brought into existence due to his stupidity and his parents' portal.

He should be dead. He should be one of the ghosts that float around the ghost zone. But he isn't.

He's thought about it… about why he didn't fry inside the portal. He theorizes that when he was electrocuted the amount of electricity pumping into his system did stop his heart… which mean he really died. To fuel his post-mortem transformation into a ghost, because ghosts are usually formed as a by-product of traumatic deaths, his body absorbed the charged ectoplasm around him because ghosts are made of ectoplasm. But, because the electricity never stopped and the ectoplasm acted as a conduit for the electricity, much like water, and Danny was a young, healthy, and strong boy, Danny's heart was shocked into beating again, and because his ghostly body couldn't function with a beating heart, it formed as a separate, yet parallel, part of him and turned into the core of his human body. Danny thinks that if the ghostly core were to, for whatever reason, disappear from his body then he would actually fully die. His ghost core must be powering his human half, which is why he can use his ghost powers in his human form.

And because of this, he knows he's never going to belong fully to either world.

Instead, he lives in this half-state of being with a foot through the proverbial black veil. And no matter what he tells Sam when they're curled up in bed together (usually hers, as her parents are less nosy and rarely home) late at night, what he mentions to Tucker when the two males are playing video games Tucker's room (because Tucker has the sweetest set-up and Tucker's parents indulge their only, tech-obsessed son), or how he phrases his answers to his sister Jazmine when she's home from college over breaks and needs someone to psychoanalyze, about how he's grateful to be alive and how much he is grateful to having these powers that can help the town in which he grew up, he knows deep down he's lying.

Because living this cursed half-life for, mostly likely, eternity is something he wouldn't wish on his most hated enemy. Even the fruit-loop, Vlad "Plasmius" Masters, who — despite having the ability to turn into a ghost — was not a TRUE "halfa." That title was reserved for Danny, and Danny alone.

Vlad had not died and then brought back to life, like Danny had. He got his powers after getting hit with charged ectoplasm and absorbing it. The acne he got? Yeah. The charged ectoplasm had been absorbed through his skin and had gotten into his bloodstream, changing his cells. Vlad's powers were achieved through, essentially, a virus that never left his system.

That's why, Danny thinks as he stares up at his glow-in-the-dark star-covered bedroom ceiling, Vlad's powers have stagnated while Danny's keep increasing at an alarming rate. Because, as his charged ectoplasm-powered human half grows and matures, his malleable ghost core (and therefore abilities) grows and matures and he can easily develop and even — dare he say it? — absorb powers.

When he first got his powers, learning how to control them was horrible. He kept sinking through floors, dropping things (and losing items of clothing) after accidentally going intangible, he was always out-of-breath and sore as his ghost powers were wreaking havoc throughout his body as the two halves learned to mold together, and fighting ghosts stronger than he was always left him in pain for at least two weeks after. Not to mention he was just hitting puberty… which came with its own set of troubles that, when merged with a core infused with both electricity-charged ectoplasm, just SPELLED trouble.

But then, by rigorously training with Sam and Tucker and, later, Jazz, he got a handle on his powers. He started using them while not in ghost form. He still maintains he can low-key absorb the powers of other ghosts, as demonstrated against both Undergrowth and Vortex, and the development (full unlocking?) of his cryokinesis.

He started earning the fear and respect of other ghosts by defeating truly evil ghosts time and time again, and he began earning the respect of the citizens of both Amity Park and the world.

Back then, however, the ghosts were interested only in scaring the town's citizens as they were happy to be out of the Ghost Zone. He was grateful for those fights, because they helped him learn how to control and effectively use his powers. Nowadays, two years later, after four major attempts to destroy the world (starting with Amity Park) (and four near-misses for blowing his secret to his parents and the rest of the world), the ghosts respect him (read: fear him) enough to not try anything major while out in the world. However, that doesn't stop them from fucking up his daily life (making him late to class [if he actually makes it TO class] and skip out in the middle of classes, ripping up his assignments, hiding his textbooks, etc.) and then disappearing before he can go postal. Just to annoy him, of course.

Although he sometimes will look up at his ceiling and think of what life would have been if he had never stepped into that portal, or had been electrocuted to death, he then thinks about all the people he's saved because of these powers, how much he and his friends (and his family, even) have matured.

Oh, he knows that he wouldn't be the person he is today without these powers. By being Danny Phantom, in trying to be the hero everyone thinks he is and looks up to, Danny Fenton knows himself better than he's ever known himself. Danny Fenton learned respect and honor and loyalty.

And although he might never get to fly among the stars as an astronaut or even LEAVE Amity, or even die fully, might occasionally think about life without ghost powers or might sometimes wish his life had ended in the portal at the beginning of his freshman year of high school (as the only way he could be living this way was by a twist of fate… or Clockwork…) when things became particularly unbearable, Danny remembers the positives.

And they make him feel like everything might just yet be worth it.

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 **As always, no flames. Constructive criticism only. Peace (Y) [- that's my attempt at a peace sign]**


	2. Chapter 2

**Once again, the theory-bug bit me. While I was writing the first one, I thought: "What if Vlad used Sam's DNA to create a more stable Dani, because obviously to get a female child one would need the presence of more than one X chromosome... preferably an XX, if Punnett Squares are to be believed." Then it turned into questioning if Danny could even HAVE children. I've read Fanfics where both happens - he can either have children, but they all have some sort of ghostly aspect, or he can't have children because of the accident. As children's shows are for children, and it took Danny and Sam SO DAMN LONG to get together, then it would stand to reason this was never addressed. Whelp. My time to shine, I guess.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. We all know DP is the wonderful product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I can't afford to be sued because I am a #graduatingcollegesenior.**

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It started with a passing comment from Sam earlier in the night.

Eyes wide and innocent, despite what they had just finished doing together, his dark-haired girlfriend turned her face up to look at him while nestled in the crook of his arms and said:

"Would you want kids?"

Danny — as a newly-turned 17-year-old boy in high school — reacted as one would expect he normally would. Eyes wide, a sudden jerk that propelled him out of his girlfriend's bed and onto her, thankfully, carpeted floor, with a blush that would make a tomato pale in comparison staining his normally vampire-pale face, and attempting to find and answer her question but stammering so much that he almost bit off his tongue. After letting him flail for what seemed like an eternity, Sam just laughed, said she was kidding (because wanted to see what would happen) and cajoled him back into the empty space under her comforter.

He thought his, admitted, extreme reaction to the question was understandable.

The two had been dating for about six months and had been sleeping together for about four. They were careful, as neither of them wanted to end up a statistic and give Sam's strict parents ANOTHER reason to possibly file a restraining order against him — and this time, one that might actually stick. He was also a teenage boy and, although he saw himself growing old with the girl once again tucked into his shoulder, he knew he wasn't emotionally mature enough for the type of commitment kids would bring.

Plus, he was a half-ghost with A LOT of enemies... some of whom were vicious and apathetic enough to hurt any children Danny would possibly have to hurt him.

But, long after Sam had fallen asleep, Danny was still up thinking about the question: "Would you want kids?"

He knew he liked kids, and he knew he was good with them. Unlike the rest of his immediate family, who were so smart they sometimes forgot to show empathy, Danny had a natural inclination toward that mothering, nurturing and protecting instinct which meant that dealing with children came naturally to him. Just look at how awesome he was with Dani? There was also some animalistic instinct to see Sam — the girl he loves and the woman he will marry one day — round with his child. It was so distinctly MALE that he would never mention it to Sam for fear of another lecture on feminism.

So, would he have kids if the circumstances were right? Absolutely, yes.

However, COULD he have children? He didn't actually know.

In addition to everything else the portal accident he had when he was a freshman did to his system on a fundamental level, Danny was quite certain the accident had fundamentally changed his ability to procreate... and not in a good way.

The way Danny saw it, the high amount of electricity that blew through his system could have killed off all his sperm. Even if it didn't immediately kill off the entirety of his ability to father children, it would have killed off all the Y chromosomes which means he would never have a male child to pass along the family name, and it meant that the only time he would have been extremely fertile would have been in the month or so following the lab accident where all of his swimmers would have been super-charged and produced at an alarming rate.

But, as a "little freshie" who was still cowardly enough to hide his growing crush on Sam and superficial enough he thought he had a chance with the hottest and most popular girl in school, these super-charged sperm were continuously wasted.

And, considering his theories on how he is actually half-dead, he was pretty sure that the child-bearing abilities were intricately connected to him being alive. So, while he was still able to produce sperm, it could very likely be dead sperm. If that was even possible. Once again, he didn't know. The only other person he could really talk to about these things was Vlad, but Danny didn't want to have anything to do with the fruit-loop.

Especially after the cloning incident.

Where the hell did Vlad even get some of Danny's DNA to MAKE a legitimate clone in the first place? OK… maybe there was that one time Danny and his mom stayed with the fruit-loop when he was a freshman in high school. Danny guessed Vlad might have gotten DNA from hair left behind in a brush or somewhere else Danny might had shed.

That explained how Vlad had gotten his hands on Danny's DNA. But… where did he get the female DNA for Danielle?

In biology classes, his teachers had explained you needed the presence of a female XX chromosome to even have a CHANCE of making a female progeny. Danny's scientifically-charged mind started whizzing. Maybe that was the reason Danielle was successful where all the others failed? By introducing female DNA to balance out the presence of male DNA, and thereby naturally creating a "child" instead of just outright trying to asexually reproduce something that was – by nature – meant to be sexually reproduced, Vlad added more stability into the clone's DNA. It was only when Dani had tried to use her powers that she began to melt, but that was fixed with a giant hit of electricity to her core.

If Danny's theory was correct…. then he and Sam didn't have to worry about having children when they got older, as they already had Dani.

He turned to look at his girlfriend – deeply ensconced in the Sandman's embrace. They were always close, and she took to Dani like a duck took to water almost immediately. Sam was always making sure Dani was OK, if she was eating enough, if she was sleeping somewhere safe… and, when Danny thought about it, the shapes of their faces and some of their mannerisms were similar as well. And, honestly, there was no other female (except for his mother and his sister) that Vlad would have had the chance to grab any sort of DNA from, and even Vlad wouldn't stoop to that level of sickness.

Clearly, Danny needed to run some tests to make sure his theory was accurate. And if it was, then he would let Sam know the answer to her question. And then he would protect his unconventional family until the day he turned full-ghost… possibly beyond that.

But first, sleep.

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 **As always: constructive criticism only. No flames. Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review *hint, hint, wink, wink***


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